How Intelligent is the Dolphin?

Dolphins are generally regarded by scientists as intelligent. This article cites the
performance of dolphns in certain tasks and the size of their brain to show that dolphins
are highly intelligent.

It is not easy to try to understand an intelligence differet from our own. The same
standards don't apply. Humans live in a world of sight. Our eyes tell us a great deal of
what we know about the world. We also have a very important appendage, the thumb,
which is opposable - capable of being placed opposite something. We learn about
objects through handling, or manipulating, them. We change our world b using tools.

Dolphins live in a world where the most important sense is the sense of sound. It is
highly developed and tells them most of what they need to know about their
environment.

It is very hard for man to measure the intelligence even of his own species. You
probably realise that the tests you take to rate your knowledge or ability would not be
very good for testing an Eskimo boy or girl or a young Bushman. They would not even
be a good test for a young French student, unless the language were changed. But how
much harder it is to test a creature whose whole frame of reference is entirely different!

In a laboratory test, a dolphin was trained to push a lever to activate an electronic signal
to an electrode implanted in the 'pleasure-producing' center of the brain. Monkeys
require several hundred trials or less - almost as feel as a human can learn. This
indicates that a dolphin's thought processes' are extremely fast.

Invisible obstructions, such as sheets of glass or plastic, were lowered into a dolphin
tank. A hydrophone (a special microphone for detecting underwater sounds) was put
into the tank. After touching a few of the obstacles, the dolphins in the tank adapted to a
swimming pattern that avoided them, even at night. Dolphins used their echolocation -
not eyes or sense of touch - to locate and avoid these obstacles.

The hydrophone shows us that dolphins are aware every time a foreign object is
dropped into their pool. Dolphins put out a steady, simple ticking for general
reconnaissance. When something is dropped into the pool, the sound changes into a
rusty-hinge sound and continues until the dolphin has discovered the size and position
of the object.

Two dolphins were taught to push underwater levers to earn a fish. A steady light
signalled, "Push the button on the right"; a flashing light signalled, "Push the button on
the left." The dolphins quickly mastered this trick. They were then taught to do it in
order, with the same dolphin going first each time. Finally, a partition was set up
between the two. Only one dolphin - the one who always went second - could see the
signal light. When she saw it, she gave a burst of sound - and the dolphin behind the
partition pushed the correct button. This test indicates that dolphins can communicate
specific information to each other.

The dolphin's brain

The brain of an adult dolphin (about 2.4 meters long and weighing 136.2 kilograms)
weighs about 1.6 kilograms. An adult man (weighing about 68 kilograms) has a brain
weighing about 1.4 kilograms. So, the dolphin's brain weighs about 0.2 kilograms (200
grams) more than man's.

Weight is not the only way of judging a brain, however. The ratio of brain weight to body
weight is important. The elephant, for instance, has a brain that may weigh 6.08
kilograms - but the elephant is 16.5 metres long. Much of his big brain is involved in
managing the functions of his huge body.

But both man and dolphin have relatively large brains in relation to the size of their
bodies.

These are other characteristics by which we judge a brain.

 The complexity of the brain - both man and dolphins have complex folds,
fissures, and convolutions on the brain's surface.
 The cell density of the brain - both man and dolphin have a high nerve-cell count.
 The number of layers in the cortex (outer part) of the brain - rats and rabbits have
four layers of cell types; monkeys, men and dolphins have six.

The brain of the dolphin looks rather like two boxing gloves placed side by side. It is
wider than it is long - just the opposite of the brains of other animals. This leads many
scientists to suppose that the auditory portion of the brain - the part concerned with
receiving and analysing sound - may be larger and more complex than in other animals,
and that therefore, the dolphins have a much better developed sense of sound than
other animals have.